


Fluffy

by Edonohana



Category: Iron Fist (TV)
Genre: Floof, Fluff, Gen, Kittens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:40:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28136343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Edonohana/pseuds/Edonohana
Summary: Ward gets turned into a kitten.
Relationships: Danny Rand/Colleen Wing, Ward Meachum & Danny Rand
Comments: 12
Kudos: 34
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Fluffy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sholio](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sholio/gifts).



> Click for visual reference: [Embed from Getty Images](http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/1249638270)

It was what Ward was beginning to think of, if not to accept, as just one of those days. Another alert that there was some kind of plot going on. Another trip with Danny to investigate, because _someone_ had to keep track of him and Colleen was his girlfriend, not his babysitter. 

(Ward tried not to think about the thankfully few times he actually had babysat Danny when they were kids. He also tried not to think about the fact that he’d apparently tried so hard to not think about it that he had literally forgotten all the mean things he’d done to Danny on those occasions. It was like he’d figured out the secret to getting blackout drunk years before he’d had access to alcohol.)

Another ominous empty warehouse containing absolutely nothing but a deeply suspicious object prominently placed in the middle of the bare floor. In this case, it was an elegant vase with a scarlet glaze and black specks. It would look just right as that single touch of color in an otherwise monochrome penthouse, like Joy used to tell him he should get, back when she was still talking to him. If they touched it, they’d undoubtedly turn into a pair of white roses or be sucked into the vase dimension. Or explode. Something like that.

“It’s a trap,” said Danny.

“Come on, Captain Obvious. Let’s get out of here before a million ninjas drop from the rafters.” Ward grabbed Danny’s arm and took a step backward.

His foot came down on something slippery and skidded out from under him. He clutched at Danny, Danny clutched at him, and Ward’s flailing free arm smacked into the wall.

Danny’s instant of heart-stopping terror when Ward vanished from his grip was replaced by surprise, then relief when he saw that Ward hadn’t actually gone anywhere. He’d just turned into a kitten.

Danny didn’t waste a second wondering if it really was Ward. The tiny black kitten, who made up in fluffiness what he lacked in size, was staring up at Danny with an unmistakably put-upon expression in his enormous, owl-like golden eyes. And if there’d ever been any doubt, it was dispelled when Ward let out a meow that encompassed a lifetime’s worth of “Why me?”

Danny checked again for the million ninjas Ward had expected, but there was no sign of anyone else. He did, however, see the gleaming wet patch on the floor and the mystic symbol on the wall by the door, both of which he’d missed the first time. He tried to let go of his anger at himself for not spotting them. The warehouse wasn’t exactly well-lit, the floor and walls were all black, and the symbol was painted in barely visible brownish red. At least, Danny hoped it was paint. 

“It’s okay, Ward. We’ll get this fixed, and in the meantime, I’ll protect you.” Danny crouched down and tried to scoop Ward up.

The black kitten puffed out to twice his original size (Danny suspected that wetted down, the kitten would be barely bigger than a well-fed rat) and spat at him.

“You can’t just walk out,” Danny said reasonably. “You’re tiny. You’ll get stepped on.” 

Ward let out a resentful yowl and backed away from Danny’s reaching hand, hissing.

“I can only think of three ways to do this,” Danny said. “I can carry you in my arms—” Ward gave a warning yowl. “You can ride on my shoulder.” Ward spat. “Or you can ride in my hood.” Ward spat again.

“Come on, Ward. Look at the size of my shoes compared to the size of, well, you. Walking really isn’t safe.”

Ward, clearly in no mood to compromise, made a dart for the door. Danny’s hand shot out. With his trained reflexes, he managed to grab the skittering kitten by the scruff of the neck. Ward dangled in mid-air, howling and lashing about, until Danny popped him into his hood with one hand and held it shut with the other.

“Sorry,” Danny said. “But we need to get out of here. Like you said, if we stay here long enough, there’ll be ninjas. Or something.”

The tiny thrashing bundle bounced and squirmed against the back of his neck as Danny cautiously went to examine the vase. As he’d thought, it was nothing but a vase—a decoy to attract their attention and make them miss the real trap.

He picked it up. There might be a clue if he could trace its origin. And if not, maybe Colleen would like it. Holding the vase in one hand and his hoodie bunched around Ward in the other, Danny left the warehouse. 

Ward stopped fighting once they were outside, but he banged his head against Danny’s hand. Danny immediately let go of the hoodie. Ward sat in what felt like a sulky silence. He was so small that Danny couldn’t see him at all, no matter how far he craned his neck, until he passed a glass store window and saw a resentful-looking black kitten riding against his back, half-swallowed by the gray hoodie.

“I swear, we’ll fix this,” said Danny. “I’ll ask Colleen if she—”

“Honey, look at that darling kitten,” came a woman’s voice. She was pointing out Ward to her kid. 

The little girl exclaimed in delight. “Did you train it to do that?”

“Uh, no,” Danny said. “I just got him.”

“Can I pet him?”

“Better not,” Danny said regretfully as Ward hissed. “He isn’t very friendly.”

“Why’d you pick him, then?”

“Well…” Danny had never been good at making things up, so he fell back on the truth. “I just like him.”

“He’s probably just nervous,” said the woman. “Once you get him home, he’ll settle in.”

Danny sure hoped so. Giving them a wave goodbye, he kept going. Ward had insisted on a taxi to get to the warehouse, but it was a perfectly walkable distance. But when he got stopped by kitten-admirers for the third time in a single block, he gave up, flipped up the hood to cover a protesting Ward, and hailed a cab.

Ward was thankfully silent all the way to the apartment. But as soon as they left the cab, he scrambled out of the hood and perched on Danny’s shoulder, his claws digging in like miniature grappling hooks. 

“Ow,” said Danny. “I can carry you, you know. You don’t need to hold on so tight.”

The grappling hooks dug in tighter. 

Colleen opened the door for him, then blinked at the kitten. “Danny, did you just decide to rescue a—”

“No.” He held out the vase. “I brought you this. It’s a present. I mean, it’s a clue, I hope, but after we finish with it, if you like it…”

She accepted the vase without really looking at it. “Thanks. But about the kitten—”

Ward stuck out his head and peered down at the ground. Danny realized what a huge and scary distance that must be for a kitten, the equivalent of leaping out of a third-floor window for a person. He reached up to lift Ward down. The kitten evaded his hand and clambered down his shirt, then pant leg. Danny winced. He was lucky that apparently no one at K’un Lun had ever encountered a kitten, or they would probably have featured in an ordeal or two. 

“It _is_ adorable,” said Colleen. “It looks like the soot sprites from _Spirited Away._ ”

Among the many things he loved Colleen for was introducing him to Miyazaki movies. And she was absolutely right. The kitten, which was so fluffy that it was basically a ball with eyes and a tail, did have a distinct resemblance to a soot sprite. 

Ward seemed to not appreciate the comparison. He hissed, then bolted under the sofa. A pair of disembodied yellow eyes seemed to float ominously in the darkness.

“It’s Ward,” said Danny. “He got turned into a kitten.”

Colleen stared at Danny, then at the eyes, then at Danny again. Then she began to laugh. Danny loved the way she laughed, but he’d rarely seen her laugh until she literally cried. It was a rare treat to see her set down the vase, scrub at her eyes, and keep on going. 

The shadows beneath the sofa let out a hiss.

“Sorry,” gasped Colleen, wiping her eyes. Another burst of laughter escaped. “Sorry, Ward. It’s just… Danny, you had him _perched on your shoulder._ ”

“He was inside my hood earlier.”

At that, Colleen lost it. She laughed so hard that she had to stagger to the sofa and sit down. Danny didn’t want to laugh, since Ward obviously wasn’t enjoying the entire situation, but Colleen’s laughter was infectious and he couldn’t help joining her. 

Ward hissed again, then shot out from under the sofa and vanished into the bedroom. 

“Oops.” Colleen made a gulping sound, then managed to collect herself. She called out, “You can come out, Ward! I’m not laughing at _you_ , just the situation.”

Ward did not come out.

Danny hoped his feelings weren’t seriously hurt. “I’m really sorry, Ward! If I ever get turned into a kitten, you can laugh all you want!”

Ward still did not come out. 

Danny started to get up, but Colleen caught his shoulder, giving a quick shake of her head. He sat back down. She was probably right that Ward might need some alone time.

“You’d be an adorable kitten.” Ruffling his hair, Colleen said, “I see you as a little orange fluffball. Bouncing off the walls, climbing everything, batting around balls… You’d be the cutest.”

Danny leaned into her touch. “I think you’d be pure black, like Ward, but sleek. The tiniest panther. Stalking around the apartment, inspecting everything.”

He told her the whole story, and drew out the symbol that had activated the spell. She frowned over it, but didn’t recognize it. The vase didn’t have any identifying marks. But when she photographed it and did a reverse image search, they found that it listed as “sold” on the website of a gallery in Manhattan. 

“Got it!” Danny exclaimed. Pitching his voice toward the bedroom, he called, “We found where the vase comes from, Ward! Now all we need to do is ask them who they sold it to!”

Colleen nudged him. “Danny…”

She pointed to the gallery’s hours. They closed at 4:00 PM on Friday and didn’t reopen until 11:00 AM on Tuesday. The laptop’s time/date informed him that it was now 12:17 on Monday. 

Danny repeated this information toward the bedroom, wishing Ward would come out. It felt weird to shout at him.

“We need to make up a bed for him,” Danny said. “Or maybe he could sleep with us…?”

 _”NO,”_ said Colleen. “Ward is not sleeping in our bed.”

A yowl came from the bedroom. Danny couldn’t tell whether it was an objection, an agreement, or just general disgruntledness with the entire situation.

“And food,” said Danny. “He’s got a kitten’s body, so he needs food that’s right for a kitten. Milk? Fish?”

“I don’t think you’re supposed to feed kittens milk,” Colleen said doubtfully. “We could buy kitten food.”

Another yowl from the bedroom. This one was definitely an objection. Danny sighed. “I don’t want to make you sick—Ward, will you please come out from there? My throat is getting sore!”

Ward did not come out.

They looked up what to feed a kitten, then checked the fridge. That was, Danny checked the fridge. Colleen seemed inclined to leave the care and feeding of Ward to him. They had a good assortment of kitten-friendly food, though discovering the intersection of kitten-friendly and Ward-friendly might be tricky. 

Danny diced some raw salmon, grilled the rest of the fillet and broke a portion into tiny bits, and put them into two of their nicest saucers while Colleen watched, periodically pushing her fist against her mouth to stifle giggles.

“I think a cup would be more dignified than a bowl for water,” Danny said, opening the cupboard. Then, mentally comparing the height of the kitten to the height of the mugs, he said, “No, that won’t work. He couldn’t reach the rim.”

There was no sound from the bedroom, but Danny could _feel_ Ward sulking.

“How about a sake cup?” suggested Colleen. She put a set on a tray, filled them with water (each one was tiny and could easily be drained in a single sitting, even by a kitten) and passed it to Danny. 

He took the tray of water and salmon to the bedroom and set it down on the floor. Ward was nowhere to be seen. Danny peered under the bed. No Ward. He checked the closet. No Ward. 

“Ward?” 

There was no reply. Beginning to worry, he did a thorough search. Ward was nowhere to be found.

“Colleen!” Danny called. “I can’t find Ward!”

She came in, repeated the search to no result, then doubtfully said, “Well, nobody could have gotten into the bedroom. Cats do hide, you know. Let’s leave him alone and see if he comes out by himself.”

Reluctantly, Danny let her lead him out of the bedroom. They ate the rest of the salmon with soy sauce and rice. Danny barely tasted it, wondering whether Ward was eating. Colleen pointedly heated water for tea, which they drank together, before he couldn’t take it any more and tiptoed into the bedroom.

The salmon, both raw and cooked, was gone, and one of the sake cups was empty. Danny was immensely relieved, though somewhat baffled. Where the hell _was_ Ward? 

He took the saucers and cup back to the kitchen, where Colleen grinned and said, “Guess it was good raw. I’m going to have you make me sashimi next time.”

She gave him a kiss and took off to teach a class at the dojo, leaving Danny alone with Ward. Wherever Ward was. Restlessly, Danny prowled around the apartment, stretched, did some forms, stretched again, then meditated. It was hard to calm his mind, but he managed it at last. When he opened his eyes, feeling more centered, he went to make himself another cup of tea.

Apparently he wasn’t as centered as he thought, because he knocked over a canister of tea balls Colleen had given him. They went rolling all over the kitchen floor, and one broke open and scattered tea everywhere. He went to the drawer where the napkins were, thinking to wet it and wipe up the tea. It stuck. Puzzled, Danny tugged harder. The drawer slowly opened, revealing a ball of black fuzz and two huge staring golden eyes.

Ward leaped down, skidded a bit, and bumped into one of the tea balls. It went rolling across the floor. That seemed to activate his kitten instincts. He chased it, caught it as it hit the wall, and swatted it with a tiny black paw. It skidded across the floor and hit another tea ball like Ward was playing the world's cutest game of pool. 

Danny watched in sheer, irresistable delight as the kitten played with the tea balls, chasing and swatting them, grabbing one and gripping it in all four paws while lying on his side, rushing from one to another and batting them all over the floor. Tea went everywhere, and flecks clung to the kitten’s black fur. Danny couldn’t help wishing _he_ could be a kitten, then decided that if it could only be one of them, it was better that it had been Ward. He’d never seen Ward have so much fun, or be so spontaneous. Danny hoped he’d remember this moment when he was a man again. 

The game was over as quickly as it had begun. The kitten yawned, opening its pink mouth amazingly wide and showing a lot of needle-like white teeth, then curled up into a perfect circle and fell instantly asleep.

Danny wasn’t sure Ward ever slept that easily as a man, either. He cleaned up most of the floor, but was careful not to disturb him, leaving a circle of tea leaves around the ball of black floof.

Watching kitten-Ward sleep was surprisingly relaxing. Danny caught himself yawning. He settled down on the sofa with a book, but watched the kitten more than he read. The black round on the floor stirred ever so slightly with each breath. It was almost meditative, watching it. Danny found himself matching his breaths to the kitten’s…

He awoke to a warm, vibrating, very light weight on his chest. Danny opened his eyes. The kitten was on his chest, right over his heart chakra, eyes closed in an expression of kittenish bliss, kneading his paws into Danny’s sweatshirt and purring a surprisingly loud purr.

For the first time, Danny wondered just how much of Ward was in the kitten. He’d assumed it was all Ward plus some kitten instincts. But would Ward ever be this openly affectionate? Had he and Colleen been projecting their own preconceived ideas onto a regular kitten, while Ward’s own personality was on some other plane of existence entirely, completely unaware of the kitten that had briefly taken his place?

The idea should have been funny, considering how they’d been talking to the kitten, but instead it made Danny angry at himself for his inability to believe that some part of Ward could be this loving and relaxed about loving, and then upset at the thought that maybe he really couldn’t, and it had taken a magical-yet-ordinary kitten to prove that.

Danny felt his fists clench and his body tense. The kitten’s eyes opened. The purr continued for a moment, and then the kitten seemed to register that he was purring. His yellow eyes widened into perfect circles of horror, and he launched off Danny’s chest, hit the floor in a tumble, and rocketed across the room, vanishing under a chest of drawers.

A grin split Danny’s face. That was Ward, all right. Ward with some new instincts or lack of human inhibitions, but still Ward. Which meant that blissed-out affection he’d briefly experienced really was a part of Ward, however deep it might normally be buried.

“Don’t be embarrassed,” Danny said. “Come out. We can watch a movie or something.”

The dark shadows under the chest of drawers hissed.

But when Danny put on a movie ( _Die Hard_ , he figured everyone liked that) and paid very close attention to the TV screen and absolutely none to the kitten creeping up on him, Ward was up on the sofa with him by the time the hostages had been taken. He didn’t cuddle again, but stayed perched on the far end of the sofa. But at times, mostly involving Hans Gruber, Danny heard a purr.

When Colleen returned, her lips twitched and sparkles danced in her eyes at the sight of the sofa. But she managed to not laugh aloud, and sat down between Danny and Ward to watch the second half of the movie. It was all a lot more cozy and relaxed than most Danny-and-Ward-and-Colleen interactions were normally.

Ward disappeared into the bedroom again for dinner. Danny fixed him more salmon, tactfully leaving him alone to eat it, while he and Colleen ordered pizza. They were careful not to comment when Ward, a small black shadow, slipped out of the bedroom and back onto the sofa. Danny made it up like a human-size bed, just in case Ward transformed back in the middle of the night, and left him to it.

The next morning, he was greeted by the ridiculously adorable sight of the black kitten under the covers with just his head and two front paws peeking out.

“I read that kittens sleep twenty-two hours out of twenty-four,” Colleen whispered.

“Sounds about right,” said Danny. 

The instant the gallery opened, Colleen got on the phone with it. Danny smiled as he listened to her impersonate an art fraud investigator to obtain the address of the person who’d bought the vase. She was so good at everything she chose to do.

Ward woke up halfway through the call. He perked up, little black tail waving in the air, as he listened. When she hung up and brandished the paper where she’d written the address, he glommed on to Danny’s pant leg and clambered up to his shoulder. There he perched, all twenty claws dug in. Danny tried to think of them as acupuncture needles, except acupuncture really didn’t hurt. Then he thought of how reluctant Ward had been to get that close the day before, and decided he didn’t mind.

“We have to take a cab. Sorry, Ward.” Colleen opened a large purse and held it to Danny’s shoulder. Ward gave a long-suffering meow, then jumped in. 

Danny relaxed when the cab dropped them off at a mansion outside of the city—he’d been half-expecting another warehouse to be ambushed at—but he saw Colleen tense. The house, he realized, bore a vague resemblance to Bakuto’s.

“It’s just the way it’s built,” Danny said.

“What?” Colleen said, her voice sharp, then realized. “Oh. Yeah. You’re right. It seems sinister because it’s probably the headquarters of whoever set a kitten transformation trap for you, not because of the architecture and bad memories.”

Danny squeezed her hand. “Exactly.”

A million ninjas dropped from the trees. 

Even as Danny began to fight them, he mentally corrected himself. It was actually only eight ninjas. But somehow any number of ninjas higher than about three always felt like a million.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Colleen hang her purse on a tree branch before drawing her katana. But his relief that Ward was safely out of the way was also his downfall: while his attention was distracted, the tiniest of pricks, smaller than a kitten’s claw, pierced his shoulder. 

Weakness spread through his body. The energy of the Fist flickered, then went out like a blown match. Danny crumpled to the ground, unable to do anything but watch as seven ninjas took on Colleen and the eighth, looking triumphant even in his mask, strode toward Danny, sai in hand. The sharp points glittered in the sunlight as he poised the trident over Danny’s chest.

A tiny black kitten dropped down on the ninja. 

“Ward! No!” Danny called. Or tried to. What came out was a barely audible mumble. 

Both ninja and kitten ignored him. Ward clung to the back of the ninja’s neck and sank in both claws and teeth. The ninja let out a yell and snatched at him, but the kitten scrambled around to his masked face and glommed on to that, biting and hissing.

The ninja screamed, dropped his sai, and snatched at Ward with both hands. All he managed to do was force Ward off his face and back to his back. The frantic ninja ripped off his shirt and hood, hurling them both away along with the kitten. Danny had a moment of terror before the pile of black cloth stirred, then opened yellow eyes—the kitten and the ninja clothes were the exact same shade of pitch black, and what Danny had thought was the hood was actually Ward. 

Danny struggled, frustrated, but could do nothing more than twitch his toes. Ward scrambled out of the shirt and looked from Colleen (now fighting four ninjas—she’d taken out three) to his now-topless foe.

The ninja was no one Danny recognized. But he did recognize the man’s tattoo. His chest was emblazoned with the same mystic symbol that had turned Ward into a kitten. 

A flash of insight came to Danny. At least, he hoped it was insight and not insanity. Calling on the sheer determination that had given him the Iron Fist, he forced out the words, “Touch his tattoo!”

His voice was so weak that he doubted the ninja had heard him. But cats have excellent hearing. Ward’s ears swiveled, then he launched himself at the ninja who was just bending to pick up the sai. He glommed on to the ninja’s leg, then swarmed up it and, to the accompaniment of anguished yells, up his stomach and then chest. As the ninja again dropped the sai to swat him away, Ward bonked the tattoo with his head.

Ward’s first thought was that the best thing about being sober was waking up without a hangover. It was good to wake up without a headache or the sense that any movement would make you throw up, good to lie lazily where you were and enjoy being warm and sleepy. He didn’t think he’d enjoyed being half-asleep this much since he’d woken up purring on Danny’s—

Ward abruptly remembered everything. The spell. The salmon. The purring. The ninjas! He sat up, paws spread to claw, and realized that he didn’t have paws or claws. Ward was on the sofa at Danny and Colleen’s apartment—fully dressed, thank God—with Danny and Colleen hovering over him. Neither of them looked the worse for wear.

“What happened?” Ward asked.

“Colleen made them give me the antidote to their paralysis drug, and they said you’d be all right once you woke up. The ninjas were from a splinter sect that was trying to capture the Iron Fist,” Danny said. “The spell was meant to catch me, not you. The symbol means “essence,” and their spell used it to shape you into your essence while rendering it harmless, so—”

“Wait a sec,” Colleen broke in. “Ward, what’s the last thing you remember?”

Ward realized that he didn’t have to admit to remembering any of it. He could say it was tripping over something at the warehouse, and they’d believe him. Oh sure, Danny would insist on telling him all about it, but Ward could pretend to disbelieve him, and he’d never have to answer any questions about what it had felt like or what he’d been thinking.

But Danny was looking at him so hopefully with those puppydog eyes—if Danny had been caught, his rendered-harmless essence would have definitely been a golden retriever puppy—that Ward couldn’t lie to his face.

“Touching the ninja’s tattoo,” Ward admitted. 

He regretted it an instant later when Danny asked, “What was it like to be a kitten? Part of you _was_ the kitten, right?”

“Well, _I_ wasn’t the one who couldn’t resist chasing a ball of tea across the kitchen floor.” Ward hesitated, then admitted, “It was fun, though. I mean, it’s fun if you’re a kitten.”

“Humans can chase balls too,” Colleen said. “Why don’t you get a soccer ball? I’m sure Danny would love to go to the park with you and kick it around.”

“I would!” Danny said. 

Ward could absolutely not imagine himself kicking around a soccer ball, any more than he could imagine cuddling with Danny. 

His expression becoming serious, Danny said, “Thanks for saving my life. That was one of the bravest things I’ve ever seen. It was like… like…”

“A kitten attacking an armed ninja?” Colleen suggested.

“Being armed wasn’t a help for him,” said Ward. “Listen, I’m starving. Want to have lunch? Anything but salmon.”

The deflection worked, at least for the moment, sending them to the phone to order in. Ward stayed on the sofa, remembering being a kitten. His senses and emotions had been bright and sharp and vivid. His inhibitions and insecurities and self-loathing and all that human baggage had been stripped away. 

He’d seen Danny sleeping, known he’d be soft and warm, felt fond of him, and wanted to express his affection. And that was all it had taken to send him jumping on to Danny’s chest. 

Part of Ward recoiled in embarrassment, while another part was glad he’d gotten to experience that… once. 

He wondered if the sheer delight in sleep and waking might spill over, even a tiny bit. It was the first time he’d slept well in… well, maybe ever. And it had happened again when he was human. Probably it was because he’d only just changed back, or because of the change itself. But he thought that for the first time in… well, maybe ever… he might not dread going to bed that night. 

Danny and Colleen seemed to be ordering the entire contents of a Chinese restaurant, except for the salmon. For all her teasing, she was the one who’d thought of the sake cups so he could have a little more dignity. As for Danny, Ward hadn’t hesitated an instant when he’d seen the ninja get the drop on him. Being a kitten had only factored into his thinking insofar as he’d had to use claws and teeth instead of gun and fists.

His body wasn’t built for it, but just for a moment, Ward thought he could feel himself purring.


End file.
